Prime minister seeks to calm feud within ruling coalition

TBILISI, DFWatch–The Georgian prime minister sought to calm down a feud within his coalition on Thursday, detailing his views in a statement posted on Facebook.

Gogi Topadze, leader of the coalition partner the Industrialists, accused the defense minister of having been involved in election fraud, while the minister, Tina Khidasheli, on her part accused Topadze of promoting Russian interests and Stalinism, which further exacerbated the conflict.

In the lengthy statement, PM Gorgi Kvirikashvili criticized both sides, but especially Khidasheli, who represents the Republican Party.

“The Defense Minister is first and foremost a member of the cabinet, and only secondary one of the leaders of her party. Considering her status, I believe it is unacceptable of her to engage in this sort of confrontation,” the statement reads.

Earlier, members of the coalition criticized MP Topadze.

The PM believes it doesn’t matter who started the confrontation and why, as they have to respect people who supported the coalition in 2012 and trusted them with running the country, thus politicians have to be responsible.

Kvirikashvili writes that the best efforts should be made in order to distance Georgian army from political processes.

“For the future of Georgia it is unknown and unacceptable having Stalinist sentiments, radicalism and marginal pseudo-traditions from the Soviet Union,” he continues.

He writes that Georgian Dream is ready to cooperate with any political force that supports the development of Georgia on the way of the integration with Europe.

He called on political partners to resolve their conflicts within the coalition.

“Otherwise I, as prime minister and leader of the coalition, will bring the changes which will provide for the stable functioning of the government and putting the political process in healthy frames.”

The confrontation began in the early February, when Topadze accused Khidasheli of fabricating the by-election in Sagarejo in October. Khidasheli gave a lengthy interview with Rustavi 2 on Tuesday, and said that Topadze is backed by forces in the neighbor country, meaning Russia.